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Jefferson Davis, former member of the United States Senate from the state of Mississippi, was sworn into office on this day as the President of the Confederate States of America. A man who had once sworn to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution of the United States said in his inauguration speech that “Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their volition only.”
Sunday, Feb. 22, 1863
DISEASE DEPLORABLY DEPOPULATES DOUGLAS
While much has been made of dreadful conditions in prisoner-of-war camps in the South, such as the brutality of Andersonville, it is less often reported that the situation was little better in the North. One example is that of Camp Douglas, Illinois. The death rate reported for the month of February was 387--out of a total population of 3884! This amounted to 10 per cent of the entire inmate body. The cause in this case was a smallpox epidemic.
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest routs a Union force three times the size of his army in a battle that helped end Union General William T. Sherman's expedition into Alabama.
Sherman was marching an army east across Mississippi from Vicksburg to *******n. He had captured and destroyed a vital Confederate supply center at *******n and was planning to move further east to Selma, Alabama, another Rebel supply base. Sherman was relying on cavalry support from General William Sooy Smith, who was coming southeast from Memphis, Tennessee. Sherman directed Smith to meet him at *******n on February 10, but Sherman did not occupy *******n until February 14. Meanwhile, Smith dallied in Tennessee waiting for the arrival of Colonel George Waring Jr.'s cavalry brigade from Kentucky, and did not leave for Mississippi until February 11.
On February 20, some of Smith's men skirmished with Confederates near West Point, just over 100 miles north of *******n. The Yankee troops slowly drove the Confederates back through West Point. The next day, more skirmishing flared as the troops continued south. The Confederates were led by Jeffrey Forrest, Nathan's younger brother. The elder Forrest waited south of West Point with the intent of drawing Smith's force into a swampy area between two rivers. Smith caught on to the plan just before it was too late and began a retreat back through West Point. On February 22, The Yankees made a stand north of West Point and fought off a Confederate attack during which Jeffrey Forrest was killed. With the older Forrest blocking his way to *******n, Smith retreated back to Memphis.
The Confederates suffered 144 men killed, wounded, or missing, while the Union lost 324. The engagement was significant because Sherman was forced to return to Vicksburg. The battle also lifted Confederate morale and enhanced the reputation of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had taken on a much larger Union force and won.
Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury, had managed to stay out of trouble for nearly two months. Now there appeared on the political scene a document promoting Chase for President. It was known as the “Pomeroy Circular” for its author, Sen. Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas. Chase vigorously claimed to know nothing about it, although he finally admitted having talked to the authors. Lincoln pulled Chase’s resignation out of his drawer...but did not use it.
The last major port of the Confederate States of America was effectively lost today as Wilmngton, North Carolina was evacuated. Every available railroad car and engine was pressed into service as the Confederate forces removed every scrap of military material that could be hauled. Finally, burning the stores that could not be removed, Gen. Bragg and his soldiers abandoned the town. As fast as they were leaving, Federal forces under Brig. Gen. Terry began occupying the city.
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Feb. 23rd
1861 : Lincoln arrives in Washington
President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives in Washington amid secrecy and tight security. With seven states having already seceded from the Union since Lincoln's election, the threat of civil war hung in the air.
Allen Pinkerton, head of a private detective agency, had uncovered a plot to assassinate Lincoln when he passed through Baltimore on his way to the capital. Lincoln and his advisors disagreed about how to respond to the threat. Some, including Pinkerton, wanted Lincoln to slip secretly into Washington, which would mean skipping an address to the Pennsylvania legislature in Harrisburg. Lincoln did not want to appear cowardly, but he felt the threats were serious.
Lincoln agreed to the covert arrival. With Pinkerton and Ward Hill Lamon, his former law partner, Lincoln slipped out of the hotel in Harrisburg on the evening of February 22. He wore a soft felt hat instead of his customary stovepipe hat, and he draped an overcoat over his shoulders and hunched slightly to disguise his height. The group boarded a sleeper car and arrived in Baltimore in the middle of the night. The trio slipped undetected from the Calvert Street station to Camden station across town. There, they boarded another train and arrived without incident in Washington at 6:00 a.m. On the platform, the party was surprised when a voice boomed, "Abe, you can't play that on me." It was Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, a friend of Lincoln's from Illinois. Washburne escorted Lincoln to the Willard Hotel.
A myth arose that Lincoln had dressed as a woman to avoid detection, but this was not the case. He did draw considerable criticism in the press for his unceremonious arrival. Northern diarist George Templeton Strong commented that if convincing evidence of a plot did not surface, "the surreptitious nocturnal dodging...will be used to damage his moral position and throw ridicule on his Administration." Lincoln later regretted the caper and commented to a friend "I did not then, nor do I now believe I should have been assassinated had I gone through Baltimore..." Regardless of how he had arrived, Lincoln was safely in Washington, ready to assume the difficult task ahead. http://www.history.com/tdih.do?actio...tegoryId=civil
The inimitable essence, the quintessential quality, the insufferable hilarity, and the general goofiness of these reports from the field is today impeded by the lamentable fact that, aside from the appointment of Andrew Jackson as military governor of Tennessee, absolutely nothing of the slightest interest, either military or political, occurred. The fact that we all know the war continued for several more years means that eventually there is sure to be some more fighting.
Monday, Feb. 23 1863
CORRUPTION CASHIERS CAMERON CAREER
Former Secretary of War Simon Cameron today resigned as Ambassador to Russia after barely a year in the position. He was sent into this Siberian exile to get him out of the war department, which during his administration was operated with a level of corruption rarely seen even in Washington. It was never proven that Cameron personally profited from the bid-rigging, overpayments and deliveries of rotten meat and wormy flour. The fact that he was the former governor of Pennsylvania did not do anything to dispel suspicion.
Tuesday, Feb. 23 1864
DALTON DEMONSTRATION DEPRESSES DAVIS
President Jefferson Davis was being deluged with requests for reinforcements from not one but two armies: Polk, in Mississippi, who was shorthanded; and also Johnston, who was not only under strength but threatened this day by Thomas’ Army of the Cumberland, which was advancing on Johnston’s position near Dalton, Ga. Davis, having no troops to send, instead suggested that perhaps Thomas’ activities were merely a “demonstration” rather than an attack. On this occasion Davis was right.
Federal cavalryman Gen. Judson Kilpatrick filed a grim report today. “Infantry lt. and seven men murdered yesterday by 8th Tex. Cav after they had surrendered. We found their bodies all together and mutilated, with paper on their breasts saying “Death to foragers”...I intend to hang eighteen of (Wheeler’s) men, and if the cowardly act is repeated, will burn every house along my line of march. I have a number of prisoners, and shall take a fearful revenge.” http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ThisDay.asp
Gen. Don Carlos Buell commanded the Union forces that reached the Cumberland River opposite Nashville today. Up the river itself came the troops transports of Grant’s army, and they began to unload and prepare to occupy the town. The departing Confederates, removing to Murfreesboro, did so under the rear-guard protection of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry. In the streets of the town piles of supplies continued to emit clouds of smoke, alternately mouth-watering as hams were burned and nauseating when bales of cotton were torched.
The Queen of the West, former Union ramship on the Mississippi which had been damaged and partly sunk earlier in the month, was raised and put to work by the Confederacy. Her assignment was to abate the nuisance posed by the USS Indianola. One attempt at ramming was fended off by a coal barge. On the second ramming attempt the ram simply bounced off Indianola’s armor plating. But the third shattered her starboard wheelhouse. Taking on water, Indianola limped to shore where her commander, Lt. Cmdr. Brown, surrendered.
Wednesday, Feb. 24 1864
CONGRESS CONFIRMS COMPLICATED COMPENSATION
President Lincoln today signed a bill passed by Congress that offered up to $300 compensation for any Union master whose slaves volunteered to join the Army. The slave would be freed at the end of his service. The act also offered increased compensation for volunteers, increased penalties for draft resistance, allowed blacks to be subject to the draft, and ordered alternative serivce in non-combat roles for those who would not bear arms for religions reasons.
Friday, Feb. 24 1865
PEEDEE PARTY PRODUCES PROGRESS
Up the PeeDee River today proceeded two ships of the squadron of Capt. J.S. Stellwagen to receive the surrender of the town of Georgetown, S.C. With the USS Catalpa and Mingoe, Ensign Allen Noyes took a small party to do the officiating, and run the Stars and Stripes up a flagpole from which it had long been vacant. A group of Confederate horsemen objected to this, and the US Navy had to be summoned to restore decorum. The town was later garrisoned by Marines. http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/T...ateResults.asp
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1864 : Battle of Dalton, Georgia, begins
Union General George Thomas attacks Joseph Johnston's Confederates near Dalton, Georgia, as the Yankees probe Johnston's defenses in search of a weakness. Thomas found the position too strong and he ceased the offensive the next day, but the Yankees learned a lesson they would apply during the Atlanta campaign that summer.
General Ulysses S. Grant, the overall commander of Union troops in the west, drove the Confederates out of Tennessee at the Battle of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain in November 1863. The Army of Tennessee, then commanded by General Braxton Bragg, fell back to northern Georgia, where Bragg was replaced by Johnston. The defensive-minded Johnston arranged his force along the imposing Rocky Face Ridge near Dalton.
Grant sent part of his army under General William T. Sherman to Mississippi for a campaign against *******n, a major supply center. This forced Johnston to send part of his army to reinforce Leonidas Polk, who was defending *******n against Sherman. When Grant became aware of this transfer, he sent Thomas to probe Johnston's defenses in hopes of finding a weak spot among the depleted Confederates. The Yankees enjoyed initial success but soon found that Johnston's troops were strong. The reinforcements sent towards Mississippi were no longer needed after Polk abandoned *******n, so they returned to Johnston's army. Now, Thomas was outnumbered and was forced to retreat after February 25.
Casualties were light. Thomas suffered just fewer than 300 men killed, wounded, or captured, while Johnston lost 140. The Union generals did learn a valuable lesson, though-a direct attack against Rocky Face Ridge was foolish. Three months later, Sherman, in command after Grant was promoted to commander of all forces, sent part of his army further south to another gap that was undefended by the Confederates. The intelligence garnered from the Battle of Dalton helped pave the way for a Union victory that summer.
Nashville, Tennessee, today changed hands without a shot being fired. As a result of Gen. U.S. Grant’s armies’ capture of Ft. Donelson and Ft. Henry, the city had basically become militarily indefensible. Confederate governor Isham Harris had packed up his office records and left town a week ago, following in the footsteps of Gen. Hardee’s troops, which had come to town only to pass through. Andrew Johnson was assigned by Lincoln to be military governor in place of Harris.
Wednesday, Feb. 25 1863
MARITIME MISHAP MARS MAIL
Acting Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes had precipitated one international crisis already in the war, by seizing two Confederate agents off a British ship on the high seas. He was at it again today, ordering the taking of a British merchantman carrying mail and cargo bound for Mexico. His logic: much cargo to Mexico wound up smuggled into the Confederacy. British logic: up with this they would not put. They demanded the mail be returned, unopened. It (eventually) was.
Thursday, Feb. 25 1864
BOYS IN BLUE BAFFLED BY BUZZARDS BATTLE
Brig. Gen. George Henry Thomas continued to demonstrate around Dalton, Ga. Today, on his orders, Federal troops under Maj. Gen. J.M. Palmer approached greater metropolitan Buzzard’s Roost, Ga. and attempted an encroachment. The Confederate defenders were already there in sufficient force, and in a strong position, so the Union men returned to their previous position with the Army of the Cumberland without offering hostilities.
Saturday, Feb. 25 1865
CAPE CURRENT CAUSES CONSTERNATION
The CSS Chicamauga had had a fairly brief career. After her completion in Wilmington port, the army commander had opposed her going to sea, on the basis that the ironclad would only cause the Federals to increase the number of blockade ships. Today the ironclad was scuttled to block the Cape Fear River at Indian Wells. Before she could be completely grounded she was caughtby the current and swung around to the bank. She was no impediment to traffic at all.
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1862 : Legal Tender Act passed
The U.S. Congress passes the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the use of paper notes to pay the government's bills. This ended the long-standing policy of using only gold or silver in transactions, and it allowed the government to finance the enormously costly war long after its gold and silver reserves were depleted.
Soon after the war began, the federal government began to run low on specie. Several proposals involving the use of bonds were suggested. Finally, Congress began printing money, which the Confederate government had been doing since the beginning of the war. The Legal Tender Act allowed the government to print $150 million in paper money that was not backed by a similar amount of gold and silver. Many bankers and financial experts predicted doom for the economy, as they believed that there would be little confidence in the scheme. There were also misgivings in Congress, as many legislators worried about a complete collapse of the nation's financial infrastructure.
These notes, called "greenbacks," worked much better than expected. It allowed the government to pay its bills and, by increasing the money in circulation, greased the wheels of northern commerce. The greenbacks were legal tender, which meant that creditors had to accept them at face value. The same year, Congress passed an income tax and steep excise taxes, both of which cooled the inflationary pressures created by the greenbacks.
Another legal tender act passed in 1863, and by war's end nearly a half-billion dollars in greenbacks had been issued. The Legal Tender Act laid the foundation for the creation of a permanent currency in the decades after the Civil War.
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Wednesday, Feb. 26 1862
MATCHLESS MONEY MAKES MARK
Abraham Lincoln made money the old-fashioned way today--he invented it. More precisely, he signed the Loan and Treasury Bill sent to him by Congress which authorized for the first time the issuance of official, national United States paper currency. Prior to this time the only official national money had been coin, usually gold or silver. States and some cities issued paper money, but it was only legal tender in that area.
Thursday, Feb. 26 1863
CHEROKEE COUNCIL CONFIRMS CONSOLIDATION
The Cherokee Nation, victim of the infamous Trail of Tears, had no reason to love the government in Washington. Indeed, there had been dissention within this tribe as well as many others as to what the proper response was to the War Between the States. The debate had occasionally led to bloodshed, and individuals had gone to fight on one side or the other. Today the Cherokee National Council repealed its Ordinance of Secession, renounced and abolished slavery, and declared for the Union.
Friday, Feb. 26 1864
LINCOLN LIST LEADS TO LENIENCY
The list of items for which soldiers could receive the death penalty was not terribly long. Mutiny, sedition, desertion, assaulting a superior officer, and sleeping on guard covered most instances. All capital sentences of courts-martial, though, had to be personally reviewed by the President, and Lincoln almost never signed any. Today he got rid of the problem by ordering that death sentences, at least for deserters, would be commuted to imprisonment during the war. Many generals detested the policy, saying it undermined discipline.
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led his Twentieth Corps to a brief stopover at Hanging Rock, South Carolina. The difficulty was that the 20th was considerably out in front of the rest of the army. The weather, which had dried out for a brief time and allowed better coordination, had turned exceedingly wet again. The Army of the Tennessee, in the vicinity of Kershaw, was in some actual danger from rising waters, even though the rain had stopped. http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/T...ateResults.asp
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1862 : In camp with Elisha Hunt Rhodes
Union soldier Elisha Hunt Rhodes visits Washington during a typical week in winter quarters. Although combat was the main job of a soldier, most men serving in the Civil War spent very few days each year in actual combat. Rhodes kept a diary during his four years in the Union army, and his notes reveal the monotony of the winter months in the Army of the Potomac. A member of the 2nd Rhode Island, Rhodes fought in every campaign from First Bull Run to Appomattox and he rose from private to colonel in four years.
The winter months were usually quiet for the soldiers. The wet, cold weather made movement very difficult, and there were few major battles fought during this time. Days were spent drilling, and Rhodes wrote that other days were spent sleeping and smoking. Many gambled among themselves, and others drank or visited the prostitutes that plied their trade near the camps. Picket duty could be a welcome respite to the boredom, and Rhodes' unit built a road during one winter encampment. On another winter occasion, he wrote: "One day is much like another at headquarters." Rhodes spent most of his winter months in or near Washington, and the capital city provided many more diversions than those available to soldiers in more remote locations. On this day, Rhodes went to hear Senator Henry Wilson from Massachusetts speak on expelling disloyal members of Congress. After listening to the speech, Rhodes and friend Isaac Cooper attended a fair at a Methodist church and met two young women, who the soldiers escorted home.
Like other soldiers, Rhodes welcomed the departure from winter quarters and an end to the monotony. "Our turn has come," he wrote excitedly when his unit began moving south to Richmond in 1864.
The right (or privilege) of habeas corpus was enshrined in the Constitution of the Confederate States of America as well as the one in Washington from which it came. Based on much older common law, it required that persons only be arrested on the basis of a warrant issued by a judge, specifying what law had been broken. Again imitating the United States, the Confederate Congress today gave the President the authority to suspend this right. Davis, actually, used it much less than Lincoln eventually would.
Captain Raphael Semmes, CSN, was the terror of the Atlantic for United States Navy ships as well as any vessel making for port in Northern territory. Roaming as far as South Africa and even China, he and the CSS Alabama were dreaded foes. Today he set upon and captured the merchant vessel Washington with a cannonball which , he wrote, “wet the people on her poop [deck], by the spray of a shot...” The ship, undamaged, was released on a bond.
Americus, Ga., was the closest town to the site of a new camp for Federal prisoners of war. Officially known as Camp Sumter, the facility would go down in history as Andersonville. Confederate policy of sending officers and enlisted men to different prisons may have contributed to discipline problems, but Andersonville’s horrors were aggravated by overcrowding, lack of food, and a terrible commandant.
Spring was not quite yet come to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but Phil Sheridan’s men were stirring anyway. Ten thousand cavalrymen, under command of Wesley Merritt, departed on this day from Winchester, heading south. All the Confederacy had left to oppose them were two weak brigades, headed by Jubal Early. Merritt’s orders were to wreck the Virginia Central Railroad, and do what damage he could to the James River Canal. http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/T...ateResults.asp
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